China unbeatable in table tennis; some are worried

LONDON: China is unbeatable in table tennis, and even Chinese officials are worried about the dominance.
China swept all four gold medals again at the London Olympics, duplicating its results from Beijing four years ago. It was barely challenged, and when it was it usually involved another player born in mainland China, but who was playing for Singapore, or Hong Kong or even South Korea.
Only three nations on the women's side in London were without a China-born player, or player with Chinese roots -- Egypt, North Korea and Japan. Even the Republic of Congo had a China-born player.
China men's coach Liu Guoliang, a double gold medalist in 1996, knows the game needs more competition.
"I'd be happy to see the overall standard improve," Liu said. "But of course, I want Chinese players to stay on top. ... But we think others can achieve great success."
Not without China help they can't. Adham Sharara, president of the International Tennis Table Federation, said he has pushed Chinese officials to open up their state-run sports schools to non-Chinese.
"Their national training center is still closed, but we're trying to convince them to open it," Sharara said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"It's like the US with basketball or Canada with ice hockey. If you keep it only for yourself, you win everything and nobody else can win, then everybody else loses interest.
"China itself has a responsibility to do something, and we have been working a lot with them over the last couple of years."
As it is now, bronze or silver is like gold for all but the Chinese.
Players in London smiled and sobbed just to reach the podium, often celebrating while Chinese on the top rung of the podium seemed relieved it was over, lifting enormous pressure from a billion fans at home who expected gold in the national pastime.
China won gold and silver in both men's and women's singles, and then swept the two team events.